Main menu

Post navigation

Who speaks for Republicans?

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this past week put Republican popularity at near historic lows. Just 26 percent in the survey viewed the party positively, compared with 68 percent for President Barack Obama, despite the economic crisis and sharp GOP criticism of his $3.8 trillion budget plan.

Republicans trailed by more than a 30-point margin on the question of which party is best positioned to end the recession.

Congressional Republicans did show remarkable near-unanimity in opposing Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan. Yet party leaders have proved less successful in articulating a competing message on the economy. Their call for smaller government and further tax cuts has rung hollow with the public, a majority of whom believe sizable federal intervention is necessary to improve the country’s bleak financial condition.

I do suppose that conservatives can continue to blame the media, including those pollsters at NBC and the, um, commies at the Wall Street Journal. Blaming the media was an effective tool once. I don’t think it’ll work anymore. In various polls, the public says, “yeah, the media is liberal — but let’s get back to hearing the GOP say why things aren’t turning out well when they get a chance to govern.”

What we need, in effect, is a stronger and smarter conservative base, on that is based on principle, not on pure partisanship, one which doesn’t just blame others for its failures. That’s the American conservatism that we need, to create a dynamic tension with Obama and Democrats, so that both sides stay alive and alert and healthy. Instead, conservatives are extra-sensitive about how they’ve been mistreated and about how the Dems have it coming to them.

Sure, Obama could implode spectacularly. It won’t change, though, what the GOP needs to do to get its own house in order. The same article quoted Newt Gingrich as saying, “”As long as Rahm Emanuel is in the White House, it’s a Nixon White House.”